[06]

NON-DUALITY

Truth
occupies a very important position in the Buddha's teaching. The Four Noble Truths are the
hub of the wheel of the Dhamma. Truth (//sacca//) is one of the ten perfections to be
cultivated in order to purify oneself.

Truth can have different aspects. If we want
to find an end to suffering, we have to find truth at its deepest level. The moral
precepts which include "not lying" are a basic training without which one can't
lead a spiritual life.

To get to the bottom of truth, one has to get
to the bottom of oneself, and that is not an easy thing to do, aggravated by the problem
of not loving oneself. It naturally follows that if one wants to learn to love oneself,
there must be hate present, and we are caught in the world of duality.

While we are floating around in the world of
duality, we can't get to the bottom of truth, because we are suspended in a wave motion
going back and forth. There is an interesting admonition in the //Sutta Nipata//,
mentioning that one should not have associates, which prevents attachments. This would
result in neither love nor hate, so that only equanimity remains, even-mindedness towards
all that exists. With equanimity one is no longer suspended between good and bad, love and
hate, friend and enemy, but has been able to let go, to get to the bottom where truth can
be found.

If we want to find the basic, underlying
truth of all existence, we must practice "letting go." This includes our weakest
and our strongest attachments, many of which aren't even recognized as clinging.

To return to the simile of the truth to be
found at the bottom, we can see that if we are clinging to anything, we can't get down to
it. We're attached to the things, people, ideas and views, which we consider ours and
believe to be right and useful. These attachments will keep us from getting in touch with
absolute truth.

Our reactions, the likes and dislikes, hold
us in suspense. While it is more pleasant to like something or someone, yet both are due
to attachments. This difficulty is closely associated with distraction in meditation. Just
as we are attached to the food that we get for the body, we are equally attached to food
for the mind, so the thoughts go here and there, picking up tidbits. As we do that, we are
again held in suspense, moving from thought to breath and back again, being in the world
of duality. When our mind acts in this way, it cannot get to rock bottom.

Depth of understanding enables release from
suffering. When one goes deeper and deeper into oneself, one finds no core, and learns to
let go of attachments. Whether we find anything within us which is pure, desirable,
commendable or whether it's impure and unpleasant, makes no difference. All mental states
owned and cherished keep us in duality, where we are hanging in mid-air, feeling very
insecure. They cannot bring an end to suffering. One moment all might be well in our world
and we love everyone, but five minutes later we might react with hate and rejection.

We might be able to agree with the Buddha's
words or regard them as a plausible explanation, but without the certainty of personal
experience, this is of limited assistance to us. In order to have direct knowledge, it's
as if we were a weight and must not be tied to anything, so that we can sink down to the
bottom of all the obstructions, to see the truth shining through. The tool for that is a
powerful mind, a weighty mind. As long as the mind is interested in petty concerns, it
doesn't have the weightiness that can bring it to the depth of understanding.

For most of us, our mind is not in the
heavy-weight class, but more akin to bantam weight. The punch of a heavy-weight really
accomplishes something, that of a bantam weight is not too meaningful. The light-weight
mind is attached here and there to people and their opinions, to one's own opinions, to
the whole duality of pure and impure, right and wrong.

Why do we take it so personal, when it's
truly universal? That seems to be the biggest difference between living at ease and being
able to let the mind delve into the deepest layer of truth, or living at loggerheads with
oneself and others. Neither hate nor greed are a personal manifestation, nobody has a
singular claim on them, they belong to humanity. We can learn to let go of that
personalized idea about our mind states, which would rid us of a serious impediment.
Greed, hate and impurities exist, by the same token non-greed and non-hate also exist. Can
we own the whole lot? Or do we own them in succession or five minutes at a time for each?
Why own any of them, they just exist and seeing that, it becomes possible to let oneself
sink into the depth of the Buddha's vision.

The deepest truth that the Buddha taught was
that there is no individual person. This has to be accepted and experienced at a feeling
level. As long as one hasn't let go of owning body and mind, one cannot accept that one
isn't really this person. This is a gradual process. In meditation one learns to let go of
ideas and stories and attend to the meditation subject. If we don't let go, we cannot sink
into the meditation. The mind has to be a heavy- weight for that too.

We can compare the ordinary mind to bobbing
around on the waves of thoughts and feelings. The same happens in meditation, therefore we
need to prepare ourselves for becoming concentrated. We can look at all mind states
arising during the day and learn to let go of them. The ease and buoyancy which arises
from this process is due to being unattached. If we don't practice throughout the day, our
meditation suffers because we have not come to the meditation cushion in a suitable frame
of mind. If one has been letting go all day, the mind is ready and can now let go in
meditation too. Then it can experience its own happiness and purity.

Sometimes people think of the teaching as a
sort of therapy, which it undoubtedly is, but that's not its ultimate aim, only one of its
secondary aspects. The Buddha's teaching takes us to the end of suffering, once and for
all, not just momentarily when things go wrong.

Having had an experience of letting go, even
just once, proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that it means getting rid of a great burden.
Carrying one's hate and greed around is a heavy load, which, when abandoned, gets us out
of the duality of judgement. It's pleasant to be without thinking; mental formations are
troublesome.

If we succeed even once or twice during a day
to let go of our reactions, we have taken a great step and can more easily do it again. We
have realized that a feeling which has arisen can be stopped, it need not be carried
around all day. The relief from this will be the proof that a great inner discovery has
been made and that the simplicity of non-duality shows us the way towards truth.